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Ok..I'm new here..I found this site the way I'm sure most if not all of you have, by desperately searching for answers and not finding them.
Anyway, here goes nothin...
I started getting sick at age 12. (I'm 21 now and its only gotten worse over the years, one more year and it will a decade).
I started feeling short of breath, the air was going in and out just fine but I felt like I wasn't getting anything out of it, like I'm drowning in air. It was terrifying at first but over the years I've kind of gotten used to it, although sometimes when its unusually persistent I still get scared.
My mom took me to a urgent care clinic after I collapsed in a grocery store. We couldn't afford anything better. The doctor I saw only gave me a quick checkup and asked a few quick questions and sent me home with zero answers. He asked me "Do you get scared when this happens?" And, after thinking (in my head) 'Yeah who wouldn't be scared if they suddenly couldn't breath?' I said "Yes." He decided I had panic attacks. I didn't realize till later that what he had really ment had been "Does this happen when you are ALREADY scared or stressed and only then?"...I was so angry...my answer would have been a clear NO. But it was to late to correct the mistake, and there was no budget left for a second visit. I've read up on panic attacks...they don't happen when you're laying in bed trying to sleep or happily watching tv or walking down the frozen food isle at the store...they happen from stress or fear.
I never got to see another doctor. I know everyone will tell me to but I have no job. Over the years things got worse, I started having stomach problems, like pain or burning or nausea (thankfully never all at once.) The last 2 years or so when I get short of breath my chest feels tight, like a vise is squeezing my ribs, and the center of my chest hurts. I'll also get lightheaded when I bend over and stand back up or when I'm in the shower especially if I'm using hot water. Sometimes I need to step out of the shower and sit on the floor for 15-20 min till I feel like I can continue without the risk of fainting. I have never actually fainted but have gotten close.
I get thirsty a lot, out of nowhere. I don't seem to absorb dietary fat very well. Ever since I was a kid I have had issues with constipation. The last year or so it seems like I am always ether constipated or have diarrhea.
I get headaches A LOT, different parts of my head, different levels of pain. I also get muscle cramps sometimes (usually in my calf or foot), and I get aches and pains in my hands and wrists and elbows. When I was in high school I get hand pain so bad that I would be in the middle of a test and suddenly, BOOM!, pain so bad that my fingers would go ridged and the pencil would fall onto my desk and roll onto the floor and I had to wait several minutes to start writing again. It was always so embarrassing.
My health background:
I haven't been diagnosed with any known health issues however diabetes runs in my family (my grandma and my dad) and one of my aunts has Crone's (spelling?)...I have kind of a diverse background, I'm Irish, German, Russian, Dutch, Jewish, Native American and possibly also African but we don't know for sure. I'm not sure if it matters but I know that some things are more or less common in some groups so I just wanted to toss that out there.
I was a fairly healthy kid but I got bacterial meningitis when I was 4 (we never found out how) and the doctors didn't tell my parents that I would need physical and speech therapy so my childhood was full of weird little issues like stiff joints and a speech impediment, most of which went away with time. I think I have permanent nerve damage from it, it would explain the hand pain, which I can only describe as like if someone sliced the back of your hand open and took a metal interments with electric current running through them and yanked on the nerves...I know thats weird but thats what it feels like to me.
Sorry to cut this short but I need to take a shower, I'll write more if I missed anything later...thanks for reading this.
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